Senator seeks tougher water law

Cristina Daly with The Long Island Herald

Originally published in The Long Island Herald

State Sen. Jim Gaughran, a Democrat from Northport, has introduced legislation that would hold companies accountable for contaminating Long Island’s drinking water and ensure that the cost of eradicating those contaminants is recouped from polluters and not passed on to ratepayers.

The bill seeks to extend the statute of limitations for public water authorities to sue polluters to three years, and clarifies ambiguous language to enforce the statute from the first detection of contamination. “When water authorities or districts attempt to sue polluters, many of the lawsuits are thrown out of court because of a technical issue revolving around the statute of limitations,” Gaughran said. “This legislation eliminates the loophole for polluters.”

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